Who to watch? Levi Men's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom
- Raúl Revuelta
- Nov 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 15
The Men's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom returns to Finland on November 16 on the "Levi Black" slope.
Since the 2006–2007 winter season, Men have raced an Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom in Levi, Finland, 12 times. However, the race was absent from the Men’s World Cup calendar for four seasons between 2019 and 2024.
Austria has been the most successful nation in Levi so far, claiming five wins in the 12 men’s races.
No Finnish skier has ever finished in the Top 10 in Levi. The best result achieved in this home event was by Kalle Palander, who finished 11th in the inaugural 2006-2007 Levi race.
Last season, Henrik Kristoffersen claimed his fourth Slalom Alpine Ski World Cup Crystal Globe, having previously won the title in 2016, 2020, and 2022. He joined Alberto Tomba on four Slalom globes, behind only Ingemar Stenmark (8) and Marcel Hirscher (6).
Loic Meillard (610) finished in second place, 52 points behind the Norwegian. Teammate Timon Haugan (609) was third, only one point behind the Swiss. Olympic Champion Clement Noel has won four World Cup Slalom races this season, already a career high, but finished behind them.
The 31-year-old skier claimed the first Crystal Globe for Marcel Hirscher’s ski brand VAN DEER–Red Bull Sports in only its third winter season. The winning setup from VAN DEER–Red Bull Sports also brought Timon Haugan to the strongest season of his career to date, with victories in Alta Badia and the Nightrace in Schladming, in Sun Valley, and two second places in Wengen and Kranjska Gora (the first double victory for the VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports team).
Henrik Kristoffersen won two World Cup Slalom races last season in Val d'Isere and Kranjska Gora. In 12 World Cup Slalom races this season, Kristoffersen has one DNF and has been inside the top eight in the other eleven races, including five podiums. He has won two Slalom races in a season five previous times.
Kristoffersen needs to achieve four victories to surpass Aksel-Lund. Svindal to become the all-time most successful Norwegian World Cup skier, male or female. Kristoffersen currently has 33 Alpine Ski World Cup wins and is pursuing Svindal, who has 36.
He needs nine more podium finishes to surpass Marcel Hirscher and move into second place on the all-time World Cup Slalom podium list. Currently, Kristoffersen is tied for third with Alberto Tomba, both having 57 podium finishes.
Kristoffersen has an excellent track record in Levi, having won twice (in 2014–15 and 2019–20), finished second three times, and finished third once. He leads the field with six career podiums in Levi. In fact, he has only failed to reach the podium once in his seven Levi races, finishing 11th in his first Levi race during the 2012–13 season.
By winning this year's Levi race, Henrik Kristoffersen could equal Marcel Hirscher's record of three wins in Levi (2013–2014, 2016–2017, and 2018–2019). Only the French skier Jean-Baptiste Grange has won in Levi more than once, achieving this in the 2008–2009 and 2010–2011 seasons.
After opening the season with four podium places in his first five races, Loic Meillard won the penultimate World Cup Slalom in Hafjell to end second in the Slalom Globe standings, the only time in his career he has been on the Slalom Top-3. He finished third in the Overall Crystal Globe race. It has been 58 years (1968) since Dumeng Giovanoli became the only Swiss skier to win the Slalom Crystal Globe.
Loic Meillard claimed the gold medal at the Slalom in Saalbach 2025, becoming the first Swiss skier to win a world championship Slalom event since Georges Schneider's victory in Aspen in 1950. Since then, the Swiss have only won three medals at world championships in Slalom: Jacques Lüthy bronze in Lake Placid in 1980, Mike von Grünigen bronze in Sierra Nevada in 1996, and Silvan Zurbriggen silver in St. Moritz in 2003.
Although Loic Meillard has only two Slalom World Cup victories in his career, he ranks as the second all-time Swiss male racer for Top-10 finishes, with a total of 40. The most successful Swiss Slalom racer is Daniel Yule, who has achieved seven victories, 17 podium finishes, and 52 Top-10 finishes.
Meillard has achieved only one podium finish in his five Levi races, when he came third last season behind Clément Noël and Henrik Kristoffersen. However, he is one of only two skiers competing next Sunday who have finished in the Top 20 in all four previous Levi Slalom World Cup races. The other is Kristoffersen.
Timon Haugan finished in third position in the Slalom standings last season. The 28-year-old Norwegian skier had a career-best season in Slalom, achieving three victories at Alta Badia, Schladming, and the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, along with five podium finishes. As a result, he finished third in the Slalom Globe standings for the second consecutive year.
Team Norway claimed six slalom wins in the 2024–25 winter season. France claimed four, all of which were won by Clément Noël. The remaining two were won by Loïc Meillard of Switzerland and Albert Popov of Bulgaria.
Last season, Norwegians also achieved a clean sweep of the podium in the Wengen Slalom, with Atle Lie McGrath taking first place, Timon Haugan second place, and Henrik Kristoffersen third place.
Last season, Clément Noël became the most successful French Slalom racer, claiming his 14th win, overtaking Jean-Noël Augert, who had 13 wins. This also put him in the top ten of the all-time Alpine Ski World Cup slalom victories list. He is now tied in eighth place with Austrians Mario Matt and Benjamin Raich.
With Noel’s four wins, France now has 72 men’s Slalom victories in total and is just two behind Italy (74) in the all-time rankings. Austria leads the way with 133 wins.
Noel could be the first skier to defend his title in Levi.
Last season, Albert Popov won his first Alpine Ski World Cup slalom race in Madonna di Campiglio, 45 years after compatriot Petar Popangelov claimed Bulgaria's only other World Cup victory in the men's slalom in Lenggries, Germany.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen recorded a first-ever World Cup Slalom podium for Brazil, finishing second in Adelboden. Pinheiro Braathen already had three Slalom wins and a Slalom Globe in the 2022-2023 winter season when racing for Norway. Pinheiro Braathen finished sixth in both the Slalom and Overall rankings last season, which is also a best-ever result for Brazil.
Manuel Feller and Linus Strasser both finished in ninth place in last season’s slalom ranking. After winning four times in his Globe-winning season, he had just two podium finishes: second place in Schladming and third in Kranjska Gora.
Aged 31 Feller became the oldest men's slalom Crystal Globe winner since Reinfried Herbst (2009-2010) and Ivica Kostelic (2010-2011) won at the same age. It’s Feller’s biggest career achievement after winning the silver medal in Slalom at the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Before 2024, the closest he came to winning a World Cup Crystal Globe was in 2021-2022 when he finished runner-up in the Slalom standings 90 points behind Henrik Kristoffersen.
Austria has won the Slalom World Cup Crystal Globe 17 times. The last time Austria won the Men’s Slalom World Cup standings before Manuel Feller was in the 2020–2021 winter season, when Marco Schwarz clinched the World Cup Slalom title. Feller etches his name in the record book alongside other Slalom title victors from his country: Marcel Hirscher (6), Benjamin Raich (2), Thomas Sykora (2), Reinfried Herbst (1), Rainer Schoenfelder (1), Thomas Stangassinger (1), and Alfred Matt (1).
Linus Straßer became the first to achieve the Kitzbühel and Schladming double. Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen was the last one to do so in 2016. Before Strasser, the previous German skier to record back-to-back Slalom World Cup wins was Armin Bittner, in January 1990. Only two German skiers, Armin Bittner (4 in 1989-1990) and Felix Neureuther (3 in 2013-2014), have won more than two Men's World Cup Slalom events in a single season.
He has won four times in Slalom in the World Cup. Straßer has won as many World Cup Slalom races in 2024 (2) as in his previous years in the World Cup combined; 2021 in Zagreb, and 2022 in Schladming. He also won a City Event in Stockholm in 2017. He is fourth-most among German skiers in Slalom wins behind Felix Neureuther (11), Armin Bittner (7), and Christian Neureuther (6).
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